Tag Archives: baptism

Baptism of the Lord: Putting Things in Order

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Dear folks,
Now we come to the Baptism of the Lord, the end of the Christmas season.
Isaiah speaks of a servant who is working quietly, “to open the eyes of the blind and bring out prisoners from confinement…”. We remember that our sins blind us and imprison us, and the grace of God enables us to see the truth and be free. Our Enemy has convinced a lot of people that to be Christian is to live a cramped, diminished life in the hopes of a reward from God. Our job is to show that living according to the Gospel is a freer, more abundant way to live.
In our Gospel John the Baptist knows something is out of place with Jesus requesting Baptism. We, of course, know that Jesus had no sin and so did not need a baptism of repentance for Himself. However, this is the beginning of His taking on the mantle of sinner that we might be freed from our sins. When Jesus says, “Allow it now, for thus is it fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” He is talking about putting everything into right relationship.
Our relationship with God, with each other, and with the earth itself were thrown into chaos by sin (See Genesis 3), and this diminished the flourishing of life. Bringing order out of chaos so that life could flourish is going to take sacrifice, and we shall see it again and again in the Gospel of Matthew.
We the baptized are united with Jesus in His mission. We will often face situations that are unfair. We shall have to help clean up messes that we didn’t make, fix things we didn’t break, and be blamed for things that are not our fault. As we go through the Gospel this year, we see how Jesus faced that. He always stood for what was true and right and often suffered unjustly for it. He never let it stop Him.
After His baptism, He would go to the desert to face temptation and then started proclaiming the Kingdom of heaven. As the Christmas season ends, we get to ordinary time, the time in which most of the work gets done.
There was an article in Wordonfire.org called “Catholic Call to be the Soul of the World” by Tim Glemkowski. He quotes the 2nd century “Letter to Diognetus”: To sum up all in
one word—what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, yet is not of the body; and Christians dwell in the world, yet are not of the world.” This is similar to Jesus’ call to be salt of the earth and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16).
We, the baptized Christians, are called to seek union with Jesus to be transformed so that we can transform the world. It’s a tall order but let us not underestimate the power of the Gospel. We may not see all the results but let us trust that God is at work. May we have a fruitful year.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Baptism of the Lord: New Beginning

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Dear Folks,
This is the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the final day of the Christmas season. I believe that Epiphany was the end of the season, and celebrated the coming of the Magi, the miracle at Cana, and the baptism of the Lord, butsomeone decided that the Baptism should have its own feast day.
I challenge everyone to read Luke chapter 3 and get a sense of John’s call to renewal. Notice his images of the axe and the tree, then the wheat and the chaff. Now if you read Psalm 1, then Luke
13:1-9. We see how the Bible reinforces lessons by the repeated use and development of imagery.
The Gospel of John does some interesting teaching on baptism.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born* from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot
reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?” Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.e 7 Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind* blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but
you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:3-8).”
The word “born” can also be translated “begotten,” as in “Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob…”. In Biblical times, the seed of the father determined what you were and was the key to your
identity. We see Jesus talking about this in John 8:39-44, who your father really is makes all the difference.
It is in this light, we see that baptism changes who we are, and now we are children of God.
Jesus, of course, was already the begotten Son of God, so His baptism did not transform Him. He who was without sin, took on the mantle of sinner to suffer for our sins. “But he was pierced for
our sins, crushed for our iniquity (Isaiah 53:5).” He reversed our journey to perdition so that we could be saved. We remember when people were created, they were first tested in a garden and
failed. Then with Moses, they were tested in a desert and failed. Jesus, right after His baptism, went to the desert to be tested, and passed. His journey would lead him to the garden of Gethsemane and He would pass again. Then he would be crucified to save us.
Jesus’ baptism marked the beginning of His mission, and our baptism marks the beginning of our journey as disciples, children of God. Everything follows from that. How is God calling us to renewal? What form might that take in our journey of 2025?
Blessings,
Fr Jim